Walker Kessler s 2nd year was better than he is getting credit. Matas Buzelis , I need help

Walker Kessler s 2nd year was better than he is getting credit. Matas Buzelis , I need help

Walker Kessler’s second year was way better than he’s getting credit for it’s next on locked on Jazz you are locked on Jazz your daily podcast on the Utah Jazz part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day are you I Am David lock radio voice of the Utah Jazz Jazz NBA Insider this is locked on jazz on today we look at Walker Kessler’s second year in the NBA a year that most people are calling a disappointment saying he regressed that’s not true we’ll get to it we’ll dig into it we’ll look into it at times he was as good as anyone in the NBA defending the rim and for the season marked up there with two of the best we’ll also look at top 10 draft pick Matias vulias I think that’s how you pronounce it and I need help I don’t see it at all at all a little Ron Holland thought but I haven’t watched enough to have a lot of thoughts on that plus if we have time game five Mavericks wolves tonight uh all coming up on today’s edition of locked on Jazz as I mentioned I Am David lock radio voice of the Utah Jazz Jazz MBA Insider this is locked on Jazz it’s your daily podcast on the Utah Jazz it’s giving you Insight expertise geeky numbers and hopefully making it way better to be a jazz fan each and every day we are free and available on all podcasting apps so please subscribe for free and on YouTube where you can subscribe and hit the Bell button be notified every time we drop an episode please be active in the chat rooms thumbs ups are always appreciated I’ve always enjoyed all the chats and the YouTube I’ve tried to jump in and comment on those Today’s Show is brought to you by our friends over at FanDuel FanDuel makes every moment more right now new customers get $150 in bonus Bets with a winning $5 bet that’s 150 bucks with a winning $5 bet visit fanduel.com locked on to get started right let’s walk through Walker kesler’s year and I’ll admit I’m gonna do this a little bit as a parent of someone the same age as Walker Kesler with some sympathy to who he W to a season let me start with the first premise generally in my opinion players who have a very good first year Walker I believe was third and Rookie of the Year voting do not actually have a necessarily have a second year that’s better the players who usually have a second year that are better are Jad iy right high pro high draft pick number five in the draft doesn’t really have a great first year and then in the second year he goes and has a better year now in this case I’m not sure he actually did which is what’s interesting about him or a Jabari Smith who did have a better who has kind of a semi disappointing first year and gets better we actually had Benedict ma in this year went the other direction in that draft class well Paulo Bon Caro and Keegan Murray and Jaylen Williams who actually were three of the best rookies of first year did get better so this class has not followed this entirely um you know Dyson Daniels who was a top 10 pick in that draft had a pretty rough first year and still can’t shoot so you know may not they may just made a mistake can’t shoot um we’ll see on these guys oai abaji same kind of thing bunch of guys didn’t actually bump the second year like they who have a bad first year but Walker basically played less inspired basketball so the number one thing I would say about Walker Kessler’s second year to his first year in the NBA is I thought he didn’t look like he liked it anymore okay like I just thought he looked unhappy I thought looked like a young kid who had lost some zest to what was taking place so to me watching Walker’s interesting he’s he’s 22 years old he’ll turn 23 here in two months he is literally 366 days older than my son and the number one thing that jumped out to me this year when I watched Walker in the first half of the year was Walker looked didn’t look like he had his regular juice didn’t look like he was enjoying himself particularly and my son was gallivanting around Europe as an exchange student and that’s probably what you’re supposed to be doing at 21 years old so let’s walk through Walker’s he has a very very good end of his year last year and then he goes to Team USA where he said all of the right things but let’s be clear that was not a good experience he didn’t play he didn’t he traveled a lot got tired didn’t probably get to put in all the work he wanted to regularly put in at that time and he didn’t play like he didn’t get opportunity he sat on the bench again 21 22 years old suddenly not playing this whole Team USA experience socially probably not a lot of guys on the team that matched to him he’s kind of a fun goofy social kid who he really smart like he’s crazy smart he’s like one of the best kids students in his class in high school a very prestigious school in Atlanta and he comes to the Jazz hoping to be probably get a little renewed for the game he goes through all of training camp as a starter but he’s got to play with this new guy we just acquired in John Collins and in the first game of the year he gets injured damat sabonis rips his shoulder tight whatever in the very first game of the year early in that game he gets hurt he plays the first eight games plays through that and then finally it’s like okay this is actually not working and he’s not great during that stretch okay like during that stretch of eight games we’ll we’ll look at the numbers he’s he’s not having the impact he usually has and again I’m gonna give a sympathetic look at this like I would as the parent of a child so I’m you know you’re a little softer on your own kid well sometimes so he after eight games he sits down with an injury and when he comes back he’s lost his starting job like we never no one we didn’t talk about this at all and I guess the general Viewpoint is like in our mind maybe Walker hadn’t totally earned a starting job the year prior right like Walker finished the year starting every game from January I think it was 10th all the way through the end of the season and he closed the year as the starting center in the NBA and then he went to Team USA and he was feeling good about himself and then he gets to Team USA and he doesn’t play and after starting the final 35 games of the NBA season he starts the first date and then he comes off the injured list and he’s benched like we didn’t couch it that way we didn’t talk about it that way he’s benched it’s truly what he is and we all just decided that that shouldn’t impact him he’s now going to come off the bench not start this guy John Collins who at the time’s not playing particularly well plays much better later in the season suddenly gets the starting spot in front of him I’m not like if I’m Walker I’m not Overjoyed by this to Walker’s Credit he really plays pretty darn well in the next stretch of games and we’ll dig into that in a moment and then he gets injured again on February 27th and by the time he comes back his final 14 games of the year 13 games of the year honestly he’s not great he’s not great he doesn’t impact the game he doesn’t play with a lot of zest okay let’s go with the human element again he’s not starting for the second straight year we’ve traded all of his best friends his locker mates were Simone fonio and Kelly linck all right so your answer is he’s got to be tougher than that okay that’s fine he’s got a he’s got a lack human element of who he is when for the and and and oai abaji who’s the one player on that team that’s kind of the same agent traded they were all right next to each other in the locker for the second straight year we’ve done this to him and we’re supposed I mean this is the guy who had Mike Conley got traded the year prior literally was close to tears like the the the the awareness of like oh God that’s what this league is was really harsh on Walker so you can flex your muscles be tough guy right now and well he’s got to be tough he’s NBA play okay well I’m gonna look at him for a second and say wait a sec so he goes and has a confidence lacking experience he’s never failed at basketball in his entire life he doesn’t really fail but he gets on a roster he doesn’t play so he feels like that he then comes out gets injured may have been his first real injury I don’t know secondly the gets benched for no particular reason other than John Collins is there and he and John Collins cannot play together so the Jazz have now acquired a player who after he has a solid final 35 games of the year starting now is taking his spot and they can’t play together and that guy wasn’t playing that well at the time they can’t play together like this is I’m not criticizing the coaching for not playing together like they played they were minus 21 for 100 possessions their offense was in the 10th percentile their defense was in the first percentile averaging a 127 when the two of them played together he then comes in he starts playing he plays really really well up to the allstar break and then we trade a bunch of guys and he loses his interest a little bit yeah I got it we want our we want our MBA players to be to lack human element but the parent in me looking at the 22-year-old Walker Kessler I could also get into a whole entire conversation with you about how like this is just not the natural appropriate developmental things that a kid goes through like I don’t know if he’s made any friends I don’t know if he’s like it’s not a place where you’re making friends three million is not helping you make friends at least the ones you know you can trust so we’ll get into his season but I think you have to have an understanding of two things here when you start talking about Walker one players who have good first years don’t usually have better second years they have better third years and two let’s have a little sympathy for what was a year that I think he probably had a little bit of a right to be a little sour and then the fact is that in the middle of that year he did one thing that I think is going to be incredibly important to his development and the other thing that is who he is and he was the best in the world at it it’s next on lock on Jazz today’s edition of lockedown jazz is brought to you by my friends over intercap lending that’s Steve Carter he’s absolutely fabulous Chris tapon wrote Steve Carter over at intercap was the second time I’ve used intercap I couldn’t have been happier steveen his team got me a competitive interest rate closed on my house way quicker than anyone else Stephen himself was great to work with trying to get paperwork needed in the middle of me traveling across the country is response knowledge and always Pleasant to speak with and Eric wrote working with Steve was a great pleasure as he handled all aspects alone with efficiency and competence any questions were promptly answered and he took extra time to be certain whether he understood the process we felt very well cared for by Steve and the rest of the interc cap team we highly recommend Steve and there’s more it comes from 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fanduel.com locked on that’s fanduel.com locked on you can bet on the NHL playoffs you can bet on the NBA they have their fun little parlay today Alice on the money line kyri to score 20 or more PJ Washington two or more threes Carl Anthony towns two plus made 3es it’s actually two plus made threes on PJ Washington $10 wager wins $56 it’s plus 555 um D Minnesota is a four and a half Point favorite Anthony Edwards is plus 2700 to score 45 or more you can also bet the first basket is it an ant dunk is it a Daniel Gafford dunk you can play all that all sorts of fun things to do over at fanduel.com lockon let’s dig into Walker season now by the way if you made the switch to locked on sports today get rid of all the yelling the screaming the absurdity the clickbait the Kendrick Perkins garbage on Rudy goar and get the local experts with their reasonable takes and their great knowledge it’s the lockdown Sports 247 stream locked on sports today on YouTube also available on Amazon fire today brings you C Miss analysis opinions local experts streaming 24/7 on YouTube or on Amazon Fire TV channels app part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day all right Walker’s game offensively needs growth okay he turned out to not be a very good three-point shooter we kind of knew that was going to happen and he needs similar to Rudy he needs to be able to find some balance down low he’s got very good hands on the right and left he needs be more powerful I’m a little convinced that one of the things that happened to Walker early in the year was his bad free throw shooting I was convinced if you go look at Walker and this was concerning to me in his rookie year Walker shot 51.6% from the free throw line and it wasn’t that big a deal at the time we kind of all let it just kind of go he finished he had a decent if you remember correctly when he started playing a little bit it felt like he was okay and then actually if you go back to the year prior he closes the year going 17 of 37 for the line from the line for about 46% in the Final 14 games it it’s getting to be a bigger and bigger deal as it goes on and if you actually stem it back from all the way back to January when he started playing a lot he finished the year like right at 50% for the entire year okay not great like not great and I thought this is just these are all just my opinions you can decide what you think of them you can decide I’m being too soft on poor Walker you can decide I’ve made this up in my head I thought we got to a little bit of a nerve-wracking Point early in the season when he came back from the injury actually before the injury he was pretty aggressive he went to the line like six times in a game which is kind of his most of his career I really began to feel as though Walker was avoiding the free throw line okay I thought he was avoiding the free throw line and I don’t know when I thought it like really happened or didn’t happen but if you just kind of take him through the middle of January for the first 26 games he played of the Season his free throw shooting was at 44% for the year and I thought this was having a considerable offensive impact to him that he would get rebounds he would make plays and he would get rid of the ball as fast as he possibly could and it started to limit his offensive ability but here’s the really good news from January 29th on and that’s an arbitrary date I picked it because he went three of four from the line that day and two of two the next day and the other thing about his free throw shooting is it didn’t make sense if you watched him it didn’t look terrible it just didn’t go in in the final 25 games of the year Walker shot 82% from the free throw line a massive Improvement that’s been talked about almost none he closed the year going seven of of nine of 10 from the line I think that is huge because if Walker Has the strength and confidence to go through people and not try to avoid being fouled when he takes shots he’ll finish at a much higher rate like he did in his first year now what’s going to make Walker a viable rotation player in the NBA not better than Rudy goar like a bunch of insanity started in his rookie year that he’s better than Rudy and Rudy’s going to like Rudy’s one of the three greatest defensive players in the history of the game but Walker has some innate skills and as will hardy said a year ago he has the capability of being a Cornerstone for who you are defensively okay let’s look at his Rim defense he can’t raise his arm above his shoulder for the first eight games of the year and he only impacts six shots a game and he only impacts them at six points better than League average not very good and finally shuts it down comes back plays Off the Bench so not against starters all the time and from November 25th to the allstar break Walker Kesler impacts 6.8 shots a game which is a lot it’s not huge but it’s a lot it’s high it’s not the biggest numbers in the league and his and opponents shoot 15.6% worse than League average when Walker’s the closest Defender all right 15.6 sounds like a lot is it well it was number one in the NBA so from November 25th to the allstar break Walker Kessler impacts just about seven shots a game and he impacts them at a rate is the most impactful defender in the NBA on a team that was last in the NBA defense so like that’s pretty good I would think the biggest question is how can we make the Sixpoint three or whatever for the season that he had be bigger than that right so the biggest Joel embiid impacts nine Brook Lopez impacts eight a game Nicole yic Alfred shun Evan Moy Jared Allen Victor webin Yama Chad holen steps porzingis Rudy goar are all 7.8 or higher how how does he get there well one is minutes frankly he’s playing 23 minutes a night it’s hard for him to go and back seven eight shots tonight then to that was to the allstar break and we trade everyone and Walker shortly there after gets hurt and he comes back March 9th and we’ve pulled the plug and he plays March 9th April 2nd and he’s not good like let’s just be honest about it like I’m going to give him a bunch of breaks let’s be honest that he’s not good he only impacts 4.8 shots a night and he only has negative 1.1 points or percentage points against the che I shoot League average against him he goes from being the number one most impactful big impactful player in the NBA Inside six feet at Nega 15.6 and then in the final games of the year he goes to negative 1.1 okay not great but you can decide for the seconds we’re not like the reality of the NBA the reality of all of it he’s more like I I’m going to give him a little bit of a pass he does it again next year then you got a guy who’s mentally can’t get over the hump but let let’s have him let him fail and get through a little bit right like bunch of during the stretch where we lose all those games coms will it’s got to impact the players yeah it impacted Walker Walker lost whatever there was to he wasn’t as good and he was so dramatically less good it has to be something other than he just wasn’t as good and I’m going to go with that the three guys in his locker next to him all got traded and it’s interesting if you look at Walker’s numbers like when he depending on who he plays with so if Walker and John Collins are on the floor together we talked about it’s terrible if Walker’s on the floor with Lowry if you actually just look at Walker the lineups that Walker plays with without John Collins and let’s take o I off him because oai abaji one wasn’t very good last year and two got traded most of the lineups are pretty good his main lineup is Kon Jordan Clarkson Simone got traded Lowry and Walker and they’re plus 7.4 and the defense is in the 81st percenta Chris Dunn Colin seon Simone Lowry Walker plus 35 not a lot of possessions offense was unbelievable with Chris Dunn and Jordan Clarkson and Bryce sensah is third most lineup they’re negative okay that’s probably not on Walker his next most common lineup was ton Colin Simone Kelly alen and Walker and that was plus 16 not surpris and the defense was a 98.6 his next lineup was plus five his next lineup was plus 22 his next line was plus 28 Walker and Kelly are pretty good together when he’s playing with our primary guys his in his the the seven of the eight most common lineups he played in were positive seven lineups in which Walker played over 50 possessions that didn’t involve John Collins or oai abagi seven of the eight were positive it’s pretty good year actually yeah was he Flawless no was he great no did he make big strides of improvement no did he mentally get knocked off his bearings a bunch of times yes do I think it’s understandable 100% do I think he can be a really good rotation NBA player yes do I think he can be a starting center yes do I think he can be a playoff 30 minute a night Center I don’t know got to get better offensively take advantage of switches got to be able to guard in space all right I need help well first I need help I’m probably how to pronounce his name but I watched matus bazus I think I don’t know and I don’t get it at all I need your help next on lock on Jazz all right I need your help I need locked on NBA bigboard here I’m gonna have to go listen to Locked on NBA big board and see what rafhael and James and leaf and Richard are all saying about this kid so his name is Matias Zulus he is 69 200 lb he’s old for like he’s 20 19.7 like he played a year of g-league but he’s not like super young and he’s got a 610 wingspan and let’s get a few things out of the way here the g-league ignite were awful I watched two games last night they were down by like 15 immediately in both of them and the g-league that I watched watched when the G League ignite was involved quite frankly felt like fake basketball okay like everyone was kind of doing what they’re supposed to but not with like H not like in any team way and everyone’s just trying to get and the only reason Matias is playing in this setting is because he’s just trying to wait a year to get to the NBA so I’m gonna understand be a little understanding here again and just be like I don’t know that I think this is what we should be talking about so he was a five-star recruit one of the top players of 2023 he was born in Chicago went Brewster Academy which is where Donovan went and there must have been something there because I watched two G League games I I just don’t see it at all like I I I actually wouldn’t have guessed watching the g-league games that this was the player on the floor that was going to be the first pick drafted or be a top 10 pick so like he runs around a lot and has I think like in the two games I watched feels like very little impact now again this could just be the g- league that like he’s running around doing what he’s want everyone else is jacking up their shots and doing their thing like he runs his routes he back Cuts there’s no effort problem at all I mean a little bit just because the G League feels like it has an effort problem on every possession like he flies in for offensive rebounds all the time I don’t know if he I don’t think he touched the ball I ever saw like maybe once he got one and put it back in but like he makes All the Right Moves all the right cuts um he moves fine he’s big kind of like he’s not like you don’t look at him like on one thing he’s listed at 610 the ringer He’s listed at 68 and point8 like with a 610 wingspan so like he’s got really good size when he gets the basketball he pump fakes almost every time then dribbles and kind of goes nowhere he had a good drive on one where he wrapped a pass around to the corner he makes a drive and he’ll get rid of the ball it’s very like methodical like it’s Josh giddy es not what just because he’s white onwhite and foreign on foreign without like this Elite passing his passing is fine he’s a willing passer one of the things I look for and again I’m not an I get very nervous like I’ve watched two games this kid and the g- League’s weird I haven’t watched any of his high school and everything might be based on when he was a festar recruit as a high school player I didn’t see a burst of athletic ISM by the way anywhere in two games I’ve watched I don’t think I’m trying to think back he makes passes and he makes the natural pass and he’s willing to pass what I didn’t ever see him do was Do What I Call as a pass one removed so like you’re here and the natural pass is there that’s the pass he makes does he ever drive and like make the pass that actually would forward The Possession one extra pass I never saw that hey these could have been two bad games like there’s only so many g games that I have on my files that I can go pull and I’m just randomly pulling them to see what to see what I got um his shooting was like all right like he made a mid mid-range jumper he missed a bunch of Threes he missed a few of them badly like he kind of Isaiah Coler zip coded a few of them I’m going to tell you what this kid’s going to be on the board at 10 I I got all the mock drafts right now and unless I’ve just utterly missed something I can’t see someone pulling the trigger on him before 10 I I I I could again like we we I could be wrong it happens a lot I’m I’m because of I’m not paid to do this as a professional therefore like I’m looking at players for a very brief period of time and I will try to watch another game or two I want to watch Holland again who by the way could not look more like Harrison Barnes um like literally I thought it was Harrison Barnes body movement everything about him other the shot doesn’t go in um but he had a big steal and breakway looked just like Harrison Parts in the G League last year the numbers on bouas 107 transition opportunities finish in the 41st percentile 62 isolations used in the 24th percentile Rim percentage finishing 41% like a pick and roll ball andley had 45 chances he was in the 17th percentile so maybe there’s just not a lot for me to see spot up percentage he was in the 29th percentile catch and shoot he was in the 24th percentile unguarded catch and shoot he was in the seventh percentile and drible up the jumper he’s in the 30th percentile he is in the danger zone of his ability to shoot and I didn’t see anything else I didn’t see like massive defensive impact I didn’t see incredible rebounding I didn’t see amazing passing I didn’t see Elite athleticism you’re building around I get it young kid well he’s 19.7 so he and Stephen Castle are the same age he and Cody Williams are the same age he and Rob Dillingham jacobe Walker Walter Isaiah klier they’re all the exact same age nicoa topic is is younger Reed Shepard and Donovan kingan are a little older and then dton connect is three and a half years older so like be careful what you decide on that Devin Carter who really like is two full years older and Jared McCain for a rookie for a freshman is eight months older those are a big deal Tristan D Silva out of Colorado was really nice when I watching he’s 23 should be he’s beating 18y olds take a senior in high school and play them against eighth graders they’re gonna kick their ass so we’ll see I’ll watch him some more but I’m telling you he’ll be available at 10 I can’t see an NBA team pulling that trigger that is lock on Jazz today thanks so much for making it to the end of lockdown Jazz I couldn’t thank you enough for that please make sure you’ve subscribed or followed already on the program if you’re on YouTube a thumbs up would be greatly appreciated jump into the community and hit the chat room if you got thoughts for me feel free to email me at d09 or hit me up on X at delock 09 we’ll do a Friday mailbag show tomorrow thanks so much for being a part of locked on Jazz we’ll now send you over on YouTube the first ever 247 National Sports stream locked on sports today if you’re on audio go check out locked on sports today on YouTube or on Amazon Fire TV have a great one thank you

Utah Jazz center Walker Kessler 2nd year is being portrayed as a failure. However, with a little understanding of what he went through and a dipper dive into the numbers and what you will see is a player who is still on the natural trajectory to being a really solid NBA player and likely a starting center in the NBA.

Matas Buzelis played last year for the G-League Ignite after being a 5 star recruit. He is currently projected as a top 7 pick in the NBA draft. David Locke, radio voice of the Utah Jazz and Jazz NBA Insider watched two G-League Ignite games last night and is not clear on why he is a top 10 pick in the NBA Draft and in fact is certain he will be on the board at 10 for the Utah Jazz if they want him,.

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